Harry Potter and the Boy Who Died
by Lisa-Allen
Summary: Harry finds a way to go back in time to save his parents, but somebody has to pay the price.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

With his trusty holly and phoenix wand repaired Harry stood before Dumbledore's portrait.

"I am really so very proud of you Harry" said Dumbledore. "You have done something that no one thought possible. You have defeated the most powerful wizard of our time. Everyone in the wizarding world will be celebrating today. You were famous before, but now everyone will know your name, there will be books written about you. But, Harry, you don't look too happy about things."

"I'm just relieved that it's all over, and I will never have to fight Voldemort again. As for happy, well, how can I possibly be happy when so many of my friends have been killed. So many of the people I care about are dead. Sirius, Tonks, Lupin, Mad-Eye, Cedric, Fred ..." Harry had to stop as his eyes filled with tears. Beside him he could hear Ron trying to suppress his sobs. Hermione pulled Ron into a hug, holding him as he fought back his tears. Harry stood alone, his tears now streaming down his face.

"He has taken everyone from me, my parents, and my friends, even you."

"I'm still here"

Harry turned round; he hadn't heard Professor McGonagall arriving with Neville, Luna and Ginny. Ginny rushed forward and entwined herself around Harry, wiping away his tears with her robes.

"Well done Master Longbottom! The way you used the Sword of Gryffindor, you're parents would have been so proud of you. You have proved yourself again to be a true Gryffindor."

Dumbledore had turned to Harry again "I hesitate to suggest this Harry, and if you don't feel up to it you just have to say. But I think there might be a way to change some of the things that happened. But you would have to fight Voldemort again."

"How could I possibly change what has already happened. There is no way to bring the dead back to life, it's not possible and even it was, it wouldn't be right."

"I'm not talking about bringing the dead back to life. I'm talking about going back in time and changing what has gone before. To go back to before Voldemort killed your mum and dad, and kill him first."

"Headmaster, you must not put ideas like that into Potter's head." burst out Professor McGonagall "You know that even with the Time Turners you can only go back in time by four or five hours. And besides, even if Harry could go back in time, he would have to fight Voldemort when he was at the height of his power. It would be far too much to expect of him."

"I believe Harry could do it. With some help from his friends." Dumbledore smiled at Ron and Hermione. "It's really just a question of whether or not he wants to take that chance. On the one hand, Voldemort is dead. We can tidy up Hogwarts, say goodbye to our dead and move on. Or, Harry can make one last supreme effort to set everything right."

"Harry" said Dumbledore "go to the cupboard where the Pensieve sits. Behind it is a small box. Bring it over to my desk. Inside the box you will find a device that looks a bit like a very clunky old fashioned watch."

Harry took the device at of its box and set it on the headmaster's desk.

"I call this device my 'Time Apparater', Grindelwald and I invented it many years ago when we were still friends. It's got broken during the fight when my sister was killed. I've thought many times about repairing it, but in the end I've always decided that it was better to face the future, than to try and change the past. You could repair it Harry, with the Elder Wand."

"You mean" said Harry "that I could use this apparater to go back and duel with Voldemort before he has a chance to kill my folks. Why have you never told me I could do this? Why didn't you do it? Even if you had just warned them that Voldemort was coming so that they could have defended themselves."

"Because I didn't, don't, know if it will work. Changing the laws of time is not to be taken lightly. It may be that everything that happens is inevitable. Perhaps, even if you go back in time you can't change anything. On the other hand, even a small change could have a catastrophic result. That's why the Ministry keeps such a tight guard on the Time Turners." said Dumbledore gently. "We have no way of knowing how things would turn out. But I really do think that at this moment, knowing you have been able to defeat Voldemort in this time, you would have a good chance of defeating him 16 years ago, especially with your brave friends Ron, Hermione and Neville" Dumbledore held up his hand as Ginny and Luna protested. "One of the limitations of the Time Apparater is that you can only go back to time within your own lifespan, so I'm afraid you girls must stay here."

"It's not fair! It's always about Harry and Harry's parents. What about my parents? Why can't we save them too?"

Everyone turned to look at Neville. He was right of course, although his parents had survived Bellatrix's torture they had lost their minds. Orphaned Harry had everyone's sympathy but the Longbottoms were rather forgotten about.

"I haven't forgotten about them Neville but tonight it is important that you go to Godrics Hollow with the others. Four of you together will stand a much better chance of success that three. There is so much that could go wrong you must help each other. Your parents, Neville, were powerful wizards, more than a match for Bellatrix but they were surprised and unarmed. What I propose is that Professor McGonagall will go back to before they were attacked and will warn them to be prepared. She will tell them the exact day and time that Bellatrix will come and they will be ready this time. Will you do that Minerva? They will recognise you and they will take your warning seriously, more than they would a warning from some unknown young man, even if he does claim to be their baby Neville!" 

Harry was staring, mesmerised by the Time Apparater, enthralled by the idea that he could save his parents. He knew he had to do this. He turned to the others and despite how desperate he was for their help he said to Ron "You're not coming. I can't risk your life with Fred lying downstairs. Your mother would never get over it. Do you remember the boggart in Grimauld Place? Your mother's worst fear was her children being killed. Her nightmare has come true once tonight already, I won't put her through that again. And you're not coming either Hermione. You need to stay and be with Ron, you've only just found each other – although I must say it was obvious to everyone else from the time Ron heard you were going to the ball with Victor Krum!"

"I am coming with you Harry" said Neville resolutely. "You can't go alone and I have as much to gain from this mission as you. There's no way you're going alone!"

"It's decided then" said Harry.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Harry pointed the Elder Wand at the Time Apparater. "Reparo" Although there was no outward sign that anything had happened there was a series of clicks and whirrs from the device, then silence again.

"Now" said Dumbledore "we need another Time Apparater for Professor McGonagall to use.

"Replicato" said Harry using the Elder Wand again.

"I will go first Albus, so that we can be certain this device is working properly. Now how do we control our destination?" Professor McGonagall carefully studied the Time Apparater and Dumbledore explained how she should set the date and time on the dials and then pressing the Apperater between her palms should concentrate on her destination just the same as a normal apparition. "The charm preventing apparition in the school grounds dissolved earlier tonight which will make things a little bit easier for us."

Professor McGonagall pressed the Time Apparater between her hands and, with a sharp crack and the barest wisp of purple smoke, she was gone.

Barely two minutes later Professor McGonagall was back.

"That was so amazing. I saw your mother Neville; in fact Alice insisted I stayed for lunch. I gave her all the details we knew about Bellatrix's attack and she promised that they would be ready for her. Then I told her all about you Neville. I told her about how you pulled the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat and used it to cut off Nagini's head. She is so proud of you Neville, so proud she was quite overcome."

"Now it's our turn Harry" said Neville "I hope after we come back I'll be able to talk to my mum too. I talk to her at St Mungo's of course, but, well, I don't know if she understands. Some days I don't think she even knows who I am."

Professor McGonagall set the dials on the Time Apparater and gave it to Harry. "I'm afraid you won't have a lot of time, just a couple of minutes before the time that Voldemort entered the cottage. We can't risk you causing any changes that might make Voldemort change his plans. This is the only point in time we know exactly where he is."

Harry and Neville linked one arm and pressed their other palms together over the Time Apparater and with a crack and a puff of purple smoke they were gone.

There was the familiar squeezed feeling of apparating but added to that there was a sort of curious whooshy, rushy feeling which was almost nauseating but almost before they had time to consider these unpleasant sensations they were in the living room of Harry's parents in Godric's Hollow.

James and Lily jumped to their feet groping for their wands. They had been totally relaxed in their home confident that here they were safe and they were unprepared for any intrusion.

"It's OK. I'm Harry. Your son Harry, from the future. You have to listen to me, Voldemort's coming. Wormtail has betrayed you. He was your secret keeper but he has led Voldemort right to your door!"

Lily and James both opened their mouths to reply but before a single word could be said there was a thunderous blast as the front door to the cottage disintegrated and Voldemort strode into the room.

Beside him Harry heard Neville gasp and sigh. Harry turned to look at him hoping Neville wasn't going to faint or anything stupid like that. Neville seemed to be shifting out of focus, as if Harry thought he had forgotten to put on his specs. But for all that Neville was standing tall and he pointed his wand directly at Voldemort.

"Animus Redimio!"

For a long moment nothing happened. Then there began a trail of dark sparks coming from the end of Voldemort's wand which seemed to be sucked up by Neville's wand. Voldemort stood motionless until the last of these sparks had disappeared. Then the blurriness around Neville increased and seemed to spread through his wand to Voldemort's wand and then to Voldemort himself. Then Neville simply wasn't there. He was gone. And so was Voldemort. Their wands lay on the floor, the only sign that they had been in the cottage.

Lily, James and Harry looked at each other in stunned amazement. They all started to talk at once but as Harry moved towards his parent's happy embrace he felt the floor tremble and suddenly Dumbledore appeared.

"You have to come with me Harry. We have so little time!"

"I want to talk to my mum and dad" Harry was still shouting as he apparated with Dumbledore.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Harry was still shouting as they arrived in the living room of a small cottage very similar to Godric's Hollow. There was an old woman sitting in a chair by the fire. Alarmed she jumped up but on recognising Dumbledore she sat back down again.

"Do you have a Pensieve Mrs Longbottom? We have some important memories we must deposit without delay. And Harry you will have plenty time to see your parents, your father is away on business for the Ministry but your mother is at Hogwarts"

Mrs Longbottom had brought the pensieve over to the table and Dumbledore urged Harry towards it.

"Have you done this before Harry? Just touch your wand to the side of your head and draw the memories towards the pensieve. That's good, now I'm afraid we want to see everything, so this may take a little time."

"What happened to Neville? Where did he go? And Voldemort has he gone too? My parents are alive? I want to go now – I need to see them"

"Hush Harry. Your parents are fine you'll see them soon of course but this is important. Was the boy that was with you Neville Longbottom? Yes? And you came from the future? We're in our future time now. Just keep your head still, good lad, I'm hoping that with these memories we can finally make sense of what happened that night." Dumbledore sat down in the other fireside chair as Mrs Longbottom spoke.

"Neville died sixteen years ago. Bellatrix Lestrange killed my son and his wife and their baby, Neville, sixteen years ago. It happened the same night as the strange goings on at the Potter's. That was in all the papers, my family barely got a mention." said Mrs Longbottom from her chair by the fire. "The day before it happened Alice said she's spoken to Minerva McGonagall and she had warned her that the Death Eaters were coming, we were ready for them but when Bellatrix realised it was a trap she became so enraged she blasted the whole house apart. Frank, Alice and baby Neville were killed instantly, they had no chance. Alice had been so excited; she said Minerva had told her Neville was destined to play an exceptional part in the fight against Voldemort. That seemed to make things worse when Neville was killed, and then Minerva denied having said it at all, said she hadn't spoken to Alice in months"

"This is Harry Potter, Lily and James oldest boy. Something very strange, even by wizarding standards, happened at the Potter's that night. We knew from James and Lily that one of the boys that appeared was their son who had come from the future. We could see from the memories they deposited at the Ministry enquiry that was true, the likeness was uncanny, and besides he identified himself. The other boy has never been identified but I believe that in the alternative future that the boys came from your grandson Neville survived Bellatrix's curses and he was the one that saved us all from Voldemort"

Harry was still pouring memories in the pensieve. He wondered that it didn't overflow. "What was the curse that Neville used? I've never heard it before."

"I had never heard of it either. In fact it took years to find it, in one of the dark magic books in the forbidden section of the library at Hogwarts. Animus Redimio – the soul binding curse. How Neville found it I don't expect we will ever know for certain. This is what I surmise happened that night. Harry and Neville came back from the future to battle Voldemort, but Bellatrix killed baby Neville, then effectively grown up Neville doesn't exist and somehow he knows it. With his time fading Neville performs the soul binding curse then when he ceases to exist so does Voldemort. Do you remember that night, Mrs Longbottom, there was an earthquake; we thought it was caused by the defeat of Voldemort? Well, now I think it was probably caused by Harry and Neville changing the course of a history that had already been written. I'm hoping Harry, that when we have time to sift through your memories we will have a few more answers. Are you finished there? Good. Now I think you should go upstairs and have a nice hot bath. I shall find some nice memories of Neville to leave with Mrs Longbottom then we'll take the Knight Bus back to Hogwarts."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Harry and Dumbledore had to whole of the upper level of the Knight Bus to themselves. Towards the back of the bus were two four poster beds. Harry could have sworn that one of the beds was his own bed from his room in the Gryffindor tower.

At the front end of the bus were two arm chairs with a small table between them with two large mugs of cocoa.

As they sipped their cocoa Harry asked Dumbledore if he had looked in the Pensieve and what would happen now.

"Well, the first thing will be another enquiry by the Ministry of Magic. They will look into all the memories in the Pensieve and decide if any further action needs to be taken. I expect they will need to do something fairly urgently about the Horcruxes – we didn't know about them, you see. Nothing to worry about though – it should be easy enough as you've shown us exactly where they all are and how to destroy them. There is so much in your memories that we didn't know about – like Hagrid and the Chamber of Secrets – he's still being blamed for causing Myrtle's death. And all the while we have had a Basilisk at Hogwarts, well, we'll have to deal with that too."

"Can you tell me about my parents?"

"I'm sorry I was a bit off hand about your parents earlier. I didn't realise that in your time they were dead and what a grim life you had had. Your father is very high up in the Ministry for Magic, they say he'll be Minister one day. Your mother teaches Potions at Hogwarts. Your sister, Jasmine, is the Ravenclaw Seeker, such a clever witch – she even makes Hermione look a bit dim sometimes!"

"I have a sister! I never thought. I always imagined just the three of us together. How old is she?"

"Jasmine is two years younger than you, and there there's Daisy who will be coming to Hogwarts in the autumn and not forgetting little Ben who's nine and goes to the primary school in Hogsmead. Your family lives in the Shreiking Shack during term time and then you go to Godrics Hollow for the holidays"

"I can't believe it a whole family! Do we get on? Am I Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team? Are Ron and Hermione my friends?"

"Yes, yes, yes! In fact you have a game tomorrow. Against Hufflepuff - for the Cup. You'll have your work cut out there – nobody has scored against Hufflepuff since Dudley became their Keeper."

Harry spluttered cocoa all the way down the clean robes Mrs Longbottom had supplied.

"Dudley at Hogwarts? How did that happen?"

"Your Aunt Petunia is a witch, not a very talented one to be sure, in fact she is the nearest thing to a squib we have ever had at Hogwarts. She wasn't very happy, she was always being compared with Lily. The other students rather made fun of her and to be honest the Professors didn't have much time for her either. The only friend she made was Hagrid, she spent a lot of time with him in the forest, I think she felt less threatened by the creatures in the Forbidden Forest than she did by the pupils at the school. She ran away from Hogwarts in her final year, we thought she just couldn't face her NEWTS, she did quite badly in her OWLS – no practical skills you see. Eventually we tracked her down, and well, it was obvious why she had left Hogwarts – you just had to look at Dudley to see he was Hagrid's son. She was adamant she couldn't come back to Hogwarts, and well, Hagrid would hardly fit in in Privet Drive.

Then another problem arose. Regulus Black had defied Voldemort, and Voldemort had ordered his death. He had to be hidden, so carefully concealed that the Death Eaters could never find him. Your mother brewed copious amounts of Polyjuice Potion and bought a human hair wig at a gentleman's outfitters and Voila! Vernon Dursley came into being. Placing Petunia, Vernon and Dudley together in one house, making them look like a standard muggle family was the perfect disguise. After Voldemort was defeated Regulus went back to being himself, of course, leaving Petunia and Dudley their own again. When Dudley got his letter to come to Hogwarts Petunia took rooms in Hogsmeade so that if he didn't like the school she could take him home. She ran into Hagrid on her very first evening. Within three weeks she had sold the house in Privet Drive and come to live with Hagrid.

I can see why I would have decided that placing you in a home that was already protected with lots of charms might seem like a good plan, I probably planted the idea that you should have a rather harsh upbringing that would build your character. If the other I got it wrong I apologise, but between you and me I don't think I did."

"How come Neville was able to kill Voldemort? I thought that it had to be me."

"You went back to the time before Voldemort had 'marked' you, until he gave you your scar the prophecy applied equally to you and Neville. You were both born at the end of July."

Harry touched his forehead, the scar on his forehead was gone.

"What about all those others that died – Snape, Barty Crouch Jr, Mad-Eye, Tonks, Fred, Lupin, Sirius, Cedric, ..."

"Not too fast. One at a time. Sirius runs a company called SPL Potions. They have a potions factory on the other side of the Forbidden Forest. Your mother, as well as teaching Potions has invented many new ones. Petunia has found many new and powerful plants in the Forest which Lily tests and uses in her potions. Sirius produces some of these commercially. One of these is an anti werewolf agent. At last the bite of a werewolf can be treated and the victim doesn't have to worry about turning into a werewolf himself. Now your mother is trying to refine and concentrate the serum so that the effects of werewolfage can be reversed, cured even. Remus' symptoms are so well controlled by your mother's potions that we persuaded him to become our Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts, and now he's married to Nymphadora. It seems that some things are predestined, Fred and George have a joke shop. It's had a bit of a slow start, they couldn't raise much investment capital to begin with, but it's starting to take of now. Cedric won the Triwizarding Trophy and is engaged to Cho Chang. Bill and Fleur are also married. Snape disappeared after Voldemort's demise, he turned up again at the Triwizarding Tournament, he's been teaching Dark Arts at Durmstrang. Barty Crouch Jr told the Ministry he was acting under the Imperious curse and he got off scott free – his father's influence probably. He's a doctor now ..."

"Don't you mean a Healer?"

"No, not really, he just calls himself The Doctor now. Now I think we've talked enough you really should get to bed. How long is since you last slept? As you sleep your head will fill with your memories of this life and in the morning you will wake as Harry Potter with no recollection of "The Boy Who Lived".

As Harry climbed into bed he asked Dumbledore "What will you do with all my memories? Who will believe any of it is true?"

"Not many Harry. Once the Ministry has finished with them I think I will give them to a very good muggle friend of mine - she was looking for an idea for a book. I may just see her on the train next week."

As Harry settled down in bed (he was sure now that it was his own bed from Hogwarts) he said "It is a pity that everyone has forgotten about Neville, he was a brave and true Gryffindor."

"Oh," said Dumbledore "we haven't forgotten him we just didn't know his name. There is a statue in Godric's Hollow, based on your parents' memories of that night. It is simply called 'The Boy Who Died'"


End file.
